marylou

Me, only down to about 20 deg F, but with no problems. I'd also be curious to know if anyone's had experiences with them in colder temps and/or stoutish wind.

ENTP, same as last year when we took this

Slicker than cat snot on a wet silk scarf Like trying to play pool with a piece of string

Tikka's been a bit of an attention whore lately.

She is free.

Well, it's already in print, and the feedback has been pretty positive. Just wanted to share it in case anyone here is thinking about taking a basic Avy course.

What I researched is in the article. A lot of our readers ski or slide. Pro Guiding is pretty accomodating as well, and can customize to meet the needs of clients.

I think the neighbor will be home at the end of the work day. Never payed that close of attention to the neighbor lady's schedule before, but if Tik's not freed by later tonight, I'll give the SPD a call and see if they can do anything.

Well, it's a garage converted to a plain old little building with a door. I did consider the Seinfeld sliced meat option, but there's just no room!

Tikka went missing last night, no biggie, she's a cat, they wander. Well, I just found her, locked in the neighbor down the way's garage. Without doing damage, there's no way for me to free her....so now we wait. By the volume and frequency of her caterwauling, I think she's probably okay....*MEOW*

This is my review of the Pro Guiding Service Avy One course. Feel free to move to Freshiez if that seems like a better place for it. Avalanche Safety - Beyond the Right Gear Avalanche Safety Courses are essential for exploring winter and spring backcountry safely. By Allison Woods, Washington Trails magazine gear editor As snowshoeing and winter hiking continue to increase in popularity, so too shall the likelihood of increased avalanche-related incidents. This season’s fatal accidents led me to ask my friends and colleagues about their winter backcountry habits. What I discovered is that the majority of them, particularly the snowshoers and “in-bounds backcountry” skiers, have no formal training in assessing danger levels. Even less of them have avalanche- related safety equipment. This is a serious concern. Many, if not most, of our prime snowshoeing destinations pass through avalanche terrain. Rather than test some supercool piece of gear this month, I set out to test some “gear for your brain” in the form of a basic avalanche course. In February, I took the Avalanche 1 Course offered by Pro Guiding Service. Pro Guiding is owned by Martin Volken, renowned Swiss guide and local ski guidebook author. He runs two ski shops, one in Seattle, and one in North Bend, and offers a wide range of courses and trips in climbing, mountaineering, and ski touring through his guide service. The course I took is the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) Level 1 certification, and as such, follows a prescribed curriculum. The Course We started Day One at Alpental Lodge for a few hours of classroom time. Our class consisted of seven students. The two instructor/guides ere Scott Schell and Ben Haskell. The pair complemented each other nicely, with Scott having a modern perspective, and Ben possessing an endearing old-school crustiness that belies his age. The first two lectures were devoted to the formation of snow pack and avalanche conditions. Afterward, we headed out into the Alpental backcountry. There we looked at different types of terrain and learned some essentials of snow travel. In the afternoon we talked about weather and trip planning, and did some field analysis of the snow pack in Edelweiss Bowl. Day One wrapped up with a short debriefing session in the lodge. Day Two started early with a slide show at the North Bend shop. We looked at images of different avalanche situations. After the morning lecture, we drove back up to Alpental, arriving just as the sun was burning off the clouds. There we broke into teams to dig a couple of snow pits. Ben led us through the somewhat complicated aspects of baseline pit testing, and then Scott taught us to do a Rutschblock test. These tests may seem like an awful lot of gobbledygook to a snowshoer or backcountry skier, but there is a huge amount of information buried in the snow pack. We concluded the morning session with a single buried transceiver search. After lunch, it was back out in the sunshine for more transceiver work. It’s simply not enough to own the equipment. Like ice axe arrest, beacon search takes quite a bit of practice to master, particularly in the case of multiple burials. We wrapped up Day Two with a debriefing session in North Bend, where the entire two day session was reviewed and discussed. The course was concluded with an informal question-and-answer period on the materials covered. Impressions The AIARE curriculum is solid. Ben and Scott did a great job of taking us through it. They allowed for tangent discussions as questions came up. The course was fast-paced and interesting, and really opened my eyes to snow hazards. Much more time was spent on what they call “terrain management” than on crisis intervention, and rightfully so. Safe snow travel depends largely on research conducted prior to leaving the parking lot. Transceiver work is not part of the AIARE curriculum, but Pro Guiding includes it in their program. That additional training is both valuable and a lot of fun. Something you might not think about when considering taking an avalanche class is student to teacher ratio. It hadn’t crossed my mind until I took this course. Pro Guiding’s ratio for Avalanche 1 is no more than five students to one teacher. This allows for open dialogue on every topic, and a fair amount of individual time with the instructors. Course cost is currently $180, and includes roughly 17 hours of training. Participants can be outfitted with alpine, AT, telemark, or snowboard gear, and are expected to be at least “strong intermediate” skiers or boarders. I might amend that last bit to say “very strong” as the terrain covered is all expert level. Steep terrain is a necessary element in learning to assess slope stability. Safety equipment is required. It can be rented at either of the Pro Ski shops. A ski lift ticket is needed for Day One, and is not included in the cost of the course. As of publication deadline, there are no more Avalanche 1 courses scheduled for this ski season. If three or more students are interested, another session can be taught. Pro Guiding plans to expand the Avalanche 1 course to include an additional three-hour evening lecture prior to the first day at Alpental. This will allow for more time in the field. Course cost is expected to increase slightly to $199. The Essentials: Beacon, Shovel, Probe Our instructors emphasized over and over how important it is to carry all three of these tools when traveling in avalanche terrain. The tools together comprise a safety system; without all three components, you might as well not carry any of them. For this course, I used: Backcountry Access Tracker DTS, $300 The Tracker is the most popular transceiver on the market. Why? It’s incredibly easy to use. I found the beacon’s controls and functions simple and intuitive in both induction line and grid searches. The digital processing did hiccup slightly when performing multiple victim burial searches, but with practice, this beacon can be your best friend. Voile XL Shovel, $40 This super-light shovel weighs just under a pound. The scoop is of standard size, but the handle is stubby and doesn’t extend. When digging snow pits, the short handle put me at a disadvantage compared to those with full-length shovels. This might not be the best shovel to use in the case of an avalanche burial situation. Add a telescoping handle, and well, that’s another story. Black Diamond QuickDraw Tour Probe 190, $39 The Black Diamond Tour probe assembles in a jiffy, and is sturdy as can be. Colored pole sections allow for quick depth assessment. For another $9 and 2.5 ounces, upgrade to the BD QuickDraw Super Tour Probe. You’ll gain an additional 75 centimeters of probe length and a more comprehensive measuring system. Above: Avalanche safety essentials, left to right: collapsible avalanche probe, snow shovel, and avalanche beacon. Avalanche Resources Pro Guiding Service (425) 888-6397, info@ProGuiding.com, www.proguiding.com Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain By Bruce Tremper, 2001, The Mountaineers Books American Avalanche Association, www.avalanche.org Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center www.nwac.noaa.gov Avalanche hotline 206-526-6677, (Local mountain weather and avalanche conditions). This article originally appeared in the March 2004 issue of Washington Trails magazine.

People are chatting, sorta.

Ok, I just tried it. You are right, you have to be logged in to chat. Maybe you two could simply exchange email addresses so you can have your time together.

That's the spot, thanks BlueMorph.

My S00b had a little mishap yesterday with a piece of random debris. Need to get a couple of things for it at the junkyard. I know there is a S00bie-specific junkyard down somewhere in White Center, but I can neither remember the name, nor the exact location. Help me out!

OK, I'll tell you why, but you would already know this if you used the chat function: The way the chat is set up now, you can log in using any name you want. Annoying, perhaps, but tolerable. So, when people log in, you spend some time playing a little "guessing game" (zzz) as to who is there. Sometimes we get noobs and goobs in there, and with the presence of some of the ghosts in the chat, you just can't always tell. I've accidentally flamed people I thought were ghosts, and accidentally not flamed people who were. One of the ghosts in particular can be a real raging a-hole. If you all love him so much, perhaps you should let him back on the board so he can spread his anti-bolting BS all over cc again. Then maybe we wouldn't have him getting all critical as to the direction of the discourse in the chatter. I want my time-wasting chat to be efficient, dammit!

Nope, I just get tired of him and others coming in there and acting like jackasses.

Right now the board is set up so that you do not have to be a member of cc to join the chatroom. It would be really nice if this could be changed, so that the ghosts from Banned Kamp couldn't come in. It gets a little old. I know this should be posted in cc news, but I can't get it to let me make a post there. Feel free to move it there.

That's just plain rude, man.

I resemble that remark!

Ok, seems as though the sample supply and tents available at retail has mysteriously dried up for the time being. They are telling me I probably can't get a sample until mid April, and the tent's supposed to be out now. I suspect there is some kind of problem with the tent....anyone know what it is? If I can't get one of the BDs in time I might try and get one of the new Big Agnes Seed House tents, they look pretty cool too. Anyone tried one yet? 2 wall, sil nylon, freestanding, teeny, and about I dunno, three pounds eight ounces? PS. Alpinfox, I wouldn't worry about a Silnylon floor leaking through the fabric. It's as waterproof as it is (NOT)breathable.

You're better off in the Girl Scouts anyway. I did a ton of trips through the Girl Scouts, includng a nifty circumnav of Mount Olympus when I was about 12, didn't end up joining the Mountaineers, and didn't have to go postholing in snow in jeans. And then put on dry jeans and do it again. I'm still looking for a good use for all of that training in lashing things together that I got at camp though!

Jay, I agree with you about most of what you have to say on this subject. That said, it's nice that there's gear for women out there nowadays. I appreciate the improvements in pack and sleeping bag design, and of course the clothes are better now too. The rest of it's a bunch of schlocky marketing hype though. I got sucked in to buying the Acetylene torch for girls, and it didn't do me any better than the unisex one....

Jeez, down boy there Klenke! The kid's like 19 or 20 years old!

Crazy how the south-facing was better than the north-. But it was, and we did, a lot until our legs said please stop. Now. Please. Stop. My little young semi-charge had her first runs up on Chair 6. I suggested her instructor take her up there. He did, off they went, now she's indoctrinated. Forever to be a Chair 6 bigot. Not my kid, but I've had influence on her in just the right ways. Saw Dave S. outside the ski lodge at the end of the day while my legs were weeping.